Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

's doctrines and texts have sometimes been associated with violence or anti-violence. Laws requiring the eradication of evil, sometimes using violent means, exist in the

Jewish tradition "Unprintworthy" redirects are redirect pages on Wikipedia that aid online navigation, but would have little or no value as pointers to target articles in a hard-copy book. The name of a redirect may be unprintworthy for a number of reasons, incl ...

. However, Judaism also contains peaceful texts and doctrines.Fighting the War and the Peace: Battlefield Ethics, Peace Talks, Treaties, and Pacifism in the Jewish Tradition. Michael J. Broyde, 1998, p. 1*Reuven Firestone (2004), "Judaism on Violence and Reconciliation: An examination of key sources" in ''Beyond violence: religious sources of social transformation in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam'', Fordham Univ Press, 2004, pp. 77, 81. * * There is often a juxtaposition of Judaic law and theology to violence and

nonviolence Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...

by groups and individuals. Attitudes and laws towards both peace and violence exist within the Jewish tradition. Throughout history, Judaism's religious texts or precepts have been used to promoteCarl. S. Ehrlich (1999) "Joshua, Judaism, and Genocide", in ''Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century'', Judit Targarona Borrás, Ángel Sáenz-Badillos (Eds). 1999, Brill. as well as oppose violence.The Columbus Platform: The Guiding Principles of Reform Judaism, 1937

Normative Judaism

Normative Judaism is not pacifist and violence is condoned in the service of self-defence. J. Patout Burns asserts that Jewish tradition clearly posits the principle of minimization of violence. This principle can be stated as "(wherever) Jewish law allows violence to keep an evil from occurring, it mandates that the minimal amount of violence be used to accomplish one's goal." Notwithstanding the inherent friction associated with the various

Jewish religious movements Jewish religious movements, sometimes called " denominations", include diverse groups within Judaism which have developed among Jews from ancient times. Samaritans are also considered ethnic Jews by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, although they a ...

in the state of Israel all vying for official recognition, in 1997 Avi Shafran of the

Agudath Israel of America Agudath Israel of America (; also called the Agudah) is an American organization that represents Haredi Judaism, Haredi Orthodox Jews. It is loosely affiliated with the international World Agudath Israel. Agudah seeks to meet the needs of the Har ...

pushed back on assertions made by Ismar Schorsch that the State's elevation of

Rabbinic Judaism Rabbinic Judaism (), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, Rabbanite Judaism, or Talmudic Judaism, is rooted in the many forms of Judaism that coexisted and together formed Second Temple Judaism in the land of Israel, giving birth to classical rabb ...

as the sole arbiter over personal status issues would inevitably lead to violence. Sure enough, in a May 2022 incident which took place at the

Western Wall The Western Wall (; ; Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: ''HaKosel HaMa'arovi'') is an ancient retaining wall of the built-up hill known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount of Jerusalem. Its most famous section, known by the same name ...

Orthodox Jewish Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tra ...

seminarians waving

World Zionist Organization The World Zionist Organization (; ''HaHistadrut HaTzionit Ha'Olamit''), or WZO, is a non-governmental organization that promotes Zionism. It was founded as the Zionist Organization (ZO; 1897–1960) at the initiative of Theodor Herzl at the F ...

flags, whose delegation was organized by the World Shas Movement and Eretz Hakodesh—an American affiliate of

United Torah Judaism United Torah Judaism (, ''Yahadut HaTora'') is a Haredi, religious conservative political alliance in Israel. The alliance, consisting of Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah, was first formed in 1992, in order to maximize Ashkenazi Haredi repr ...

—jeered at, drowned out with whistles and spat upon members of the

Women of the Wall Women of the Wall (Hebrew: נשות הכותל, ''Neshot HaKotel'') is a multi-denominational Jewish feminist organization based in Israel whose goal is to secure the rights of women to pray at the Western Wall, also called the Kotel, in a fashi ...

group over religious and ideological differences.

Nonviolence

Similar to the world's other major religions, Judaism's religious texts endorse compassion and peace. The

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' According to the 1937 Columbus Platform of

Reform Judaism Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish religious movements, Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its Jewish ethics, ethical aspects to its ceremo ...

, "Judaism, from the days of the prophets, has proclaimed to mankind the ideal of universal peace, striving for spiritual and physical disarmament of all nations. Judaism rejects violence and relies upon moral education, love and sympathy." The philosophy of

has roots in Judaism, going back to the

Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud (, often for short) or Palestinian Talmud, also known as the Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. Naming this version of the Talm ...

of the middle 3rd century. While absolute nonviolence is not a requirement of Judaism, the religion so sharply restricts the use of violence, that nonviolence often becomes the only way to fulfilling a life of truth, justice and peace, which Judaism considers to be the three tools for the preservation of the world.

Warfare

The biblical narrative about the conquest of Canaan, and the commands related to it, have had a deep influence on

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

as well as

Western culture Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, Western society, or simply the West, refers to the Cultural heritage, internally diverse culture of the Western world. The term "Western" encompas ...

. Lemche, Niels Peter, ''The Old Testament between theology and history: a critical survey'', Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, pp. 315–316:"The iblicalstory of the 'morally supreme people' that defeats and exterminates another, inferior, nation was part of the ideological baggage of European imperialists and colonizers throughout the nineteenth century. It was also carried by European Jews who,... migrated to Palestine to inherit their ancestral country … In this modern version of the biblical narrative, the Palestinian population turned into 'Canaanites', supposed to be morally inferior to the Jews, and of course the Arabs were never considered their equals … The Bible was the instrument used to suppress the enemy". Throughout

Jewish history Jewish history is the history of the Jews, their Jewish peoplehood, nation, Judaism, religion, and Jewish culture, culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions and cultures. Jews originated from the Israelites and H ...

, mainstream Jewish traditions have considered these texts purely historical or highly conditioned, and in any event, they are not considered relevant to later times. The

Second Temple period The Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years (516 BCE – 70 CE) during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstructio ...

experienced a surge in militarism and violence which was aimed at curbing the encroachment of

Greco-Roman The Greco-Roman world , also Greco-Roman civilization, Greco-Roman culture or Greco-Latin culture (spelled Græco-Roman or Graeco-Roman in British English), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and co ...

and

Hellenistic Jewish Hellenistic Judaism was a form of Judaism in classical antiquity that combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Hellenistic culture and religion. Until the early Muslim conquests of the eastern Mediterranean, the main centers of Hellen ...

influences in

Judea Judea or Judaea (; ; , ; ) is a mountainous region of the Levant. Traditionally dominated by the city of Jerusalem, it is now part of Palestine and Israel. The name's usage is historic, having been used in antiquity and still into the pres ...

. Groups such as the

Maccabees The Maccabees (), also spelled Machabees (, or , ; or ; , ), were a group of Jews, Jewish rebel warriors who took control of Judea, which at the time was part of the Seleucid Empire. Its leaders, the Hasmoneans, founded the Hasmonean dynasty ...

the

Zealots The Zealots were members of a Jewish political movements, Jewish political movement during the Second Temple period who sought to incite the people of Judaea (Roman province), Judaea to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from the Land ...

, the

Sicarii The Sicarii were a group of Jewish assassins who were active throughout Judaea in the years leading up to and during the First Jewish–Roman War, which took place at the end of the Second Temple period. Often associated with the Zealots (altho ...

at the

Siege of Masada The siege of Masada was the Roman Empire's defeat of the Sicarii, occurring from 72 to 73 AD – during the final period of the First Jewish–Roman War – on and around a hilltop in present-day Israel. The siege is recorded by a single contem ...

, and later the

Bar Kochba revolt The Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 AD) was a major uprising by the Jews of Judaea against the Roman Empire, marking the final and most devastating of the Jewish–Roman wars. Led by Simon bar Kokhba, the rebels succeeded in establishing an ind ...

, all derived their power from the biblical narrative of Hebrew conquest and hegemony over the

Land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definition ...

, sometimes garnering support of the rabbis, and at other times their ambivalence. In modern times, the early

history of Zionism As an organized nationalist movement, Zionism is generally considered to have been founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897. However, the history of Zionism began earlier and is intertwined with Jewish history and Judaism. The organizations of Hovevei Z ...

saw the emergence of the Brit Shalom organization (). Deriving inspiration from the writings of Ahad Ha'am, its members sought to prod the nascent Zionist movement into a direction of peaceful coexistence with the Arabs in

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

in a bi-national state. These ideas eventually fell out of favor as Zionist militias employing violence began to emerge as a response to the 1921 Jaffa riots and the subsequent

Israeli–Palestinian conflict The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing military and political conflict about Territory, land and self-determination within the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the conflict include the Israeli occupation ...

. Since then, warfare which has been conducted by the

State of Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

is governed by Israeli law and regulation, which includes a purity of arms code that is based in part on Jewish tradition; the 1992 IDF Code of Conduct combines international law, Israeli law, Jewish heritage and the IDF's own traditional ethical code. However, tension between actions of the Israeli government on the one hand, and

s and ''

halakha ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also Romanization of Hebrew, transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Judaism, Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Torah, Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is ...

'' (Jewish law) on the conduct of war on the other, have caused controversy within Israel and have provided a basis for

criticism of Israel Criticism of Israel is a subject of journalistic and scholarly commentary and research within the scope of international relations theory, expressed in terms of political science. Israel has faced international criticism since its establishment ...

. Some strains of radical

Zionism Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

promote aggressive war and justify them with biblical texts.

Forced conversion

Forced conversion Forced conversion is the adoption of a religion or irreligion under duress. Someone who has been forced to convert to a different religion or irreligion may continue, covertly, to adhere to the beliefs and practices which were originally held, w ...

s occurred under the

Hasmonean kingdom The Hasmonean dynasty (; ''Ḥašmōnāʾīm''; ) was a ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during the Hellenistic times of the Second Temple period (part of classical antiquity), from BC to 37 BC. Between and BC the dynasty rule ...

. The Idumaens were forced to convert to Judaism, either by threats of exile, or threats of death, depending on the source. In ''Eusebíus, Christianity, and Judaism'' Harold W. Attridge claims that "there is reason to think that

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

' account of their conversion is substantially accurate." He also writes, "That these were not isolated instances but that forced conversion was a national policy is clear from the fact that

Alexander Jannaeus Alexander Jannaeus ( , English: "Alexander Jannaios", usually Latinised to "Alexander Jannaeus"; ''Yannaʾy''; born Jonathan ) was the second king of the Hasmonean dynasty, who ruled over an expanding kingdom of Judaea from 103 to 76 BCE. ...

(c. 80 BCE) demolished the city of

Pella Pella () is an ancient city located in Central Macedonia, Greece. It served as the capital of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. Currently, it is located 1 km outside the modern town of Pella ...

Moab Moab () was an ancient Levant, Levantine kingdom whose territory is today located in southern Jordan. The land is mountainous and lies alongside much of the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. The existence of the Kingdom of Moab is attested to by ...

, 'because the inhabitants would not agree to adopt the national custom of the Jews. Josephus, Antiquities. 13.15.4.

Maurice Sartre Maurice Sartre (born 3 October 1944) is a French historian, an Emeritus professor of ancient history at the François Rabelais University, a specialist in ancient Greek and Eastern Roman history, especially the Hellenized Middle East, from Alexan ...

has written of the "policy of forced Judaization adopted by Hyrcanos,

Aristobulus I Judah Aristobulus I, or Aristobulus I (; ), was the High Priest of Israel and the first Hasmonean king of Judaea, reigning from 104 BCE until his death the following year. He was the eldest of the five sons of John Hyrcanus, the previous leader. ...

and Jannaeus", who offered "the conquered peoples a choice between expulsion or conversion". William Horbury has written that "The evidence is best explained by postulating that an existing small Jewish population in Lower Galilee was massively expanded by the forced conversion in c. 104 BCE of their Gentile neighbours in the north."

Kingdom of Himyar

After the conversion of the kingdom of Himyar in the late 4th century to Judaism, two episodes of "coercion and brutality" by Himyar Jewish kings took place during the fifth and early sixth centuries. In an early example of

persecution of Christians The persecution of Christians can be historically traced from the first century of the Christian era to the present day. Christian missionaries and converts to Christianity have both been targeted for persecution, sometimes to the point ...

, thirty-nine Christians were martyred in the third quarter of the fifth century, and a massacre of Christians took place in 523. The Yemeni Jewish Himyar tribe, led by King Dhu Nuwashad, offered Christian residents of a village in

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

the choice between conversion to Judaism or death, and 20,000 Christians were massacred. Inscriptions show the great pride he expressed after massacring more than 22,000 Christians in Zafar and

Najran Najran ( '), is a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia. It is the capital of Najran Province. Today, the city of Najran is one of the fastest-growing cities in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As of the 2022 census, the city population was 381,431, wi ...

Retribution and punishments

An eye for an eye

While the principle of ''lex talionis'' ( "an eye for an eye") is clearly echoed in the Bible, in Judaism it is not literally applied, and was interpreted to provide a basis for financial compensation for injuries. Pasachoff and Littman point to the reinterpretation of the ''lex talionis'' as an example of the ability of Pharisaic Judaism to "adapt to changing social and intellectual ideas." Stephen Wylen asserts that the ''lex talionis'' is "proof of the unique value of each individual" and that it teaches "equality of all human beings for law."

Capital and corporal punishment

While the Bible and

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

specify many violent punishments, including death by stoning, decapitation, burning, and strangulation for some crimes, these punishments were substantially modified during the

Rabbinic Rabbinic Judaism (), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, Rabbanite Judaism, or Talmudic Judaism, is rooted in the many forms of Judaism that coexisted and together formed Second Temple Judaism in the land of Israel, giving birth to classical rabb ...

era, primarily by adding additional requirements for conviction. The

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

states that a

sanhedrin The Sanhedrin (Hebrew and Middle Aramaic , a loanword from , 'assembly,' 'sitting together,' hence ' assembly' or 'council') was a Jewish legislative and judicial assembly of either 23 or 70 elders, existing at both a local and central level i ...

that executes one person in seven years – or seventy years, according to

Eleazar ben Azariah Eleazar ben Azariah () was a 1st-century CE Jewish tanna, i.e. Mishnaic sage. He was of the second generation and a junior contemporary of Gamaliel II, Eliezer b. Hyrcanus, Joshua b. Hananiah, and Akiva. Biography He was a kohen who traced ...

– is considered bloodthirsty. During the

Late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

, the tendency of not applying the death penalty at all became predominant in Jewish courts. According to Talmudic law, the competence to apply capital punishment ceased with the destruction of the

Second Temple The Second Temple () was the Temple in Jerusalem that replaced Solomon's Temple, which was destroyed during the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC), Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. It was constructed around 516 BCE and later enhanced by Herod ...

. In practice, where medieval Jewish courts had the power to pass and execute death sentences, they continued to do so for particularly grave offenses, although not necessarily the ones defined by the law. Although it was recognized that the use of capital punishment in the post-Second Temple era went beyond the biblical warrant, the Rabbis who supported it believed that it could be justified by other considerations of Jewish law. Whether Jewish communities ever practiced capital punishment according to rabbinical law and whether the Rabbis of the Talmudic era ever supported its use even in theory has been a subject of historical and ideological debate. The 12th-century Jewish legal scholar

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

stated that "It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death." The position of Jewish Law on capital punishment often formed the basis of deliberations by Israel's Supreme Court. It has been carried out by Israel's judicial system only once, in the case of

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ;"Eichmann"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 19 March 1906 – 1 Ju ...

Purim and the Book of Esther

The

Book of Esther The Book of Esther (; ; ), also known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as "the Scroll" ("the wikt:מגילה, Megillah"), is a book in the third section (, "Writings") of the Hebrew Bible. It is one of the Five Megillot, Five Scrolls () in the Hebr ...

, one of the books of the Jewish Bible, is a story of palace intrigue centered on a plot to kill all Jews which was thwarted by Esther, a Jewish queen of Persia. Instead of being victims, the Jews killed "all the people who wanted to kill them." The king gave the Jews the ability to defend themselves against their enemies who tried to kill them, numbering 75,000 (Esther 9:16) including

Haman Haman ( ; also known as Haman the Agagite) is the main antagonist in the Book of Esther, who according to the Hebrew Bible was an official in the court of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian empire under King Ahasuerus#Book of Esther, Ahasuerus, comm ...

, an Amalekite that led the plot to kill the Jews. The annual

Purim Purim (; , ) is a Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday that commemorates the saving of the Jews, Jewish people from Genocide, annihilation at the hands of an official of the Achaemenid Empire named Haman, as it is recounted in the Book of Esther (u ...

festival celebrates this event, and includes the recitation of the biblical instruction to "blot out the remembrance r nameof Amalek". Scholars – including

Ian Lustick Ian Steven Lustick (born 1949) is an American political scientist and specialist on the modern history and politics of the Middle East. He currently holds the Bess W. Heyman Chair in the department of Political Sciences at the University of Pennsy ...

, Marc Gopin, and Steven Bayme – state that the violence described in the

has inspired and incited violent acts and violent attitudes in the post-biblical era, continuing into modern times, often centered on the festival of

. Other scholars, including Jerome Auerbach, state that evidence for Jewish violence on Purim through the centuries is "exceedingly meager", including occasional episodes of stone throwing, the spilling of rancid oil on a Jewish convert, and a total of three recorded Purim deaths inflicted by Jews in a span of more than 1,000 years. In a review of historian Elliot Horowitz's book ''Reckless rites: Purim and the legacy of Jewish violence'',

Hillel Halkin Hillel Halkin (; born 1939) is an American-born Israeli translator, biographer, literary critic, and novelist who has lived in Israel since 1970. Biography Hillel Halkin was born in New York City two months before the outbreak of World War II. ...

pointed out that the incidences of Jewish violence against non-Jews through the centuries are extraordinarily few in number and that the connection between them and Purim is tenuous. Rabbi Arthur Waskow and historian Elliot Horowitz state that

Baruch Goldstein Baruch Kopel Goldstein (; born Benjamin Carl Goldstein; December 9, 1956 – February 25, 1994) was an American and Israeli physician and religious extremist who, in 1994, murdered 29 Palestinian people in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West ...

, perpetrator of the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, may have been motivated by the Book of Esther, because the massacre was carried out on the day of Purim but other scholars point out that the association with Purim is circumstantial because Goldstein never explicitly made such a connection.

Modern acts of religiously motivated violence

Cases

In the context of the

, the motives for

acts of violence ''Acts of Violence'' is a 2018 American action thriller film directed by Brett Donowho, starring Bruce Willis, Cole Hauser, Shawn Ashmore, Ashton Holmes, Melissa Bolona, Sophia Bush, and Mike Epps. It was written by Nicolas Aaron Mezzanat ...

which have been committed against Palestinians by Religious Jews in the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

are complex and varied according to Weisburg. While religious motivations for these acts of violence have been documented, the use of non-defensive violence is outside of mainstream Judaism.Morris 2008, pp. 126–128.

Abraham Isaac Kook Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook (; 7 September 1865 – 1 September 1935), known as HaRav Kook, and also known by the Hebrew-language acronym Hara'ayah (), was an Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox rabbi, and the first Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbina ...

(1865–1935), the

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...

Chief Rabbi of

Mandate Palestine The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordanwhich had been part of the Ottoman Empire for four centuriesfollowing the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in Wo ...

, stated that the Jewish people's settlement of the land should only proceed by peaceful means.Judaism and the ethics of war, Norman Solomon. International Review of the Red Cross. Volume 87 Number 858 June 2005 Contemporary settler movements follow Kook's son Tzvi Yehuda Kook (1891–1982), who also refused to advocate an aggressive conquest of the Land of Israel. Critics claim that Gush Emunim and followers of Tzvi Yehuda Kook advocate violence based on Judaism's religious precepts.

Benny Morris Benny Morris (; born 8 December 1948) is an Israeli historian. He was a professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Beersheba, Israel. Morris was initially associated with the ...

, and Nur Masalha assert that radical Zionist leaders relied on religious doctrines for justification for the violent treatment of Arabs in Palestine, citing examples where pre-state Jewish militia used verses from the Bible to justify their violent acts, which included expulsions and massacres such as the one at Deir Yassin. After

carried out the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in 1994, his actions were widely interpreted as being based on the radical Zionist ideology of the Kach movement, and they were condemned as such by mainstream religious and secular Jews but they were praised by a number of radical Zionists. Dov Lior,

Chief Rabbi Chief Rabbi () is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a capitulation by Ben-Zion Meir ...

of Hebron and Kiryat Arba in the southern

and head of the "Council of Rabbis of Judea and Samaria" has made speeches legitimizing the killing of non-Jews and praising Goldstein as a saint and martyr. Lior also said "a thousand non-Jewish lives are not worth a Jew's fingernail" according to journalists."The List: The World's Worst Religious Leaders". foreignpolicy.com. April 2008 (original article no longer available online). Copies ar
cached at Google.com
and reproduced o
richarddawkins.net
. Retrieved 17 March 2010. Lior publicly gave permission to spill blood of Arab persons and has publicly supported extreme right-wing terrorists of Jewish faith. Following an arson incident in 2010, in which a mosque in Yasuf village was desecrated, apparently by settlers from the nearby Gush Etzion settlement bloc,"Does the Torah back burning mosques?"
by Rabbi Gideon Sylvester. The Jewish Chronicle Online. 22 October 2010. the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger condemned the attack and he also likened the arson to

Kristallnacht ( ) or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from the Hitler Youth and German civilia ...

, he said: "This is how

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

began, the tragedy of the Jewish people of Europe.""Chief rabbi: Palestinian mosque burning harkens to Kristallnacht"
by Anshel Pfeffer. Haaretz. Rabbi Menachem Froman, a well-known peace activist, visited the mosque and replaced the burnt Koran with new copies. The rabbi stated: "This visit is to say that although there are people who oppose peace, he who opposes peace is opposed to God" and "

Jewish law ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mit ...

also prohibits damaging a holy place." He also remarked that arson in a

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

is an attempt to sow

hatred Hatred or hate is an intense negative emotional response towards certain people, things or ideas, usually related to opposition or revulsion toward something. Hatred is often associated with intense feelings of anger, contempt, and disgust. Hat ...

between Jews and Arabs. According to Haaretz, in July 2010, Yitzhak Shapira who heads Dorshei Yihudcha

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

in the

settlement of Yitzhar, was arrested by Israeli police based on suspicion that he had written a book that encourages Jews to kill non-Jews. The book, ''The King's Torah'', (''Torat HaMelech'') claims that, under the

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

and

Jewish Law ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mit ...

, the killing of

Gentile ''Gentile'' () is a word that today usually means someone who is not Jewish. Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, have historically used the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is used as a synony ...

s is legal and in some cases, the killing of the babies of enemies is also legal. Later in August 2010, police arrested rabbi Yosef Elitzur-Hershkowitzco-author of Shapira's bookon the suspicion of incitement to racial violence, possession of a racist text, and possession of material that incites to violence. While the book has been endorsed by radical Zionist leaders including Dov Lior and Yaakov Yosef, it has been widely condemned by mainstream secular and religious Jews.Daniel Estrin for ''The Forward'' and ''Haaretz'' Jan. 22, 201
"The King's Torah: a rabbinic text or a call to terror?"
/ref> Rabbi Hayim David HaLevi stated that in modern times no one matches the biblical definition of an idolater, and therefore ruled that Jews in Israel have a moral responsibility to treat all citizens with the highest standards of humanity.

Assassinations

On November 7, 1938, a young Polish Jew named

Herschel Grynszpan Herschel Feibel Grynszpan (Yiddish: הערשל פײַבל גרינשפּאן; German language, German: ''Hermann Grünspan''; 28 March 1921 – last rumoured to be alive in 1945, declared dead in 1960) was a History of Jews in Poland, Polish-Jew ...

attacked and shot German diplomat

Ernst vom Rath Ernst Eduard vom Rath (3 June 1909 – 9 November 1938) was a member of the German nobility, a Nazi Party member, and German Foreign Office diplomat. He is mainly remembered for his assassination in Paris in 1938 by a Polish Jewish teenager, ...

in the German embassy in Paris five times, mortally wounding him with bullets to the spleen, stomach and pancreas. The attack occurred against the backdrop of the

racial policy of Nazi Germany The racial policy of Nazi Germany was a set of policies and laws implemented in Nazi Germany under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, based on pseudoscientific and racist doctrines asserting the superiority of the putative "Aryan race", which cl ...

, which led to Grynszpan's family, together with more than 12,000 Polish-born Jews, being expelled by the Nazi government from Germany to Poland in the so-called '' Polenaktion'' on October 28, 1938. Grynszpan, trying to pass himself off as a spy, asked if he could see "His Excellency, the ambassador" to hand over the "most important document" he claimed to have. Instead, according to the French police account, he shouted right before pulling out his gun: "You're a filthy boche! In the name of 12,000 persecuted Jews, here is the document!" At his trial, Grynszpan wanted to use the "Jewish avenger" defense successfully used by Sholem Schwarzbard at his trial in 1927, but Grynszpan's French lawyer Vincent de Moro-Giafferi pursued a defense based on Rath being a homosexual who tried to seduce Grynszpan, an approach which succeeded in delaying the trial indefinitely. Jewish organizations were horrified by Grynszpan's action. The

World Jewish Congress The World Jewish Congress (WJC) is an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations, founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in August 1936. According to its mission statement, the World Jewish Congress's main purpose is to act as ...

"deplored the fatal shooting of an official of the German Embassy by a young Polish Jew of seventeen", but "protested energetically against the violent attacks in the German press against the whole of Judaism because of this act" and "reprisals taken against the German Jews". In France, the Alliance Israélite Universelle "rejected all forms of violence, regardless of author or victim" but "indignantly protested against the barbarous treatment inflicted on an entire innocent population." The assassination of Israeli Prime Minister

Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (; , ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the prime minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–1977, and from 1992 until Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, his ass ...

by Yigal Amir was motivated by Amir's personal political views and his understanding of Judaism's religious law of ''moiser'' (the duty to eliminate a Jew who intends to turn another Jew over to non-Jewish authorities, thus putting a Jew's life in danger) and''

rodef A ''rodef'' (, "pursuer"; , '), in traditional Jewish law, is one who is "pursuing" another to murder him or her. According to Jewish law, such a person must be stopped—even killed—by any bystander after that pursuer has been warned and refu ...

'' (a bystander can kill a person who is pursuing another person in an attempt to murder him or her if he or she cannot be stopped in other ways). Amir's interpretation has been described as "a gross distortion of Jewish law and tradition" and the mainstream Jewish view is that Rabin's assassin had no Halakhic basis to shoot Prime Minister Rabin.Halacha File: The Halacha of Rodef and the Rabin Shooting
. Koltorah.org (2004-11-20). Retrieved on 2010-10-27.

Extremist organizations

In the course of

, some individuals and organizations have endorsed or advocated violence based on their interpretations of Jewish religious principles. Such instances of

religious violence Religious violence covers phenomena in which religion is either the target or perpetrator of violent behavior. All the religions of the world contain narratives, symbols, and metaphors of violence and war and also nonviolence and peacemaking. ...

are considered extremist aberrations of Judaism by adherents of mainstream Judaism, and as a result, they are not considered representative of the tenets of Judaism. * Kach (defunct) and Kahane Chai * Gush Emunim Underground (defunct): formed by members of Gush Emunim. * Brit HaKanaim (defunct): an organisation operating in Israel from 1950 to 1953 with the objective of imposing Jewish religious law in the country and establishing a

Halakhic state ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mit ...

. * The Jewish Defense League (JDL): founded in 1969 by Rabbi

Meir Kahane Meir David HaKohen Kahane ( ; ; born Martin David Kahane; August 1, 1932 – November 5, 1990) was an American-born Israel, Israeli Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox ordained rabbi, writer and ultra-nationalist politician. Founder of the Israeli pol ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, with the declared purpose of protecting Jews from harassment and

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

.Anti-Defamation League on JDL

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

statistics show that, from 1980 to 1985, 15 terrorist attacks were attempted in the U.S. by members of the JDL. The FBI's Mary Doran described the JDL in 2004 Congressional testimony as "a proscribed terrorist group". The National Consortium for the Study of Terror and Responses to Terrorism states that, during the JDL's first two decades of activity, it was an "active terrorist organization". Kahanist groups are banned in

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

.Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs)
U.S. Department of State, 11 October 2005

General claims

Some critics of religion such as

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer is an American academic. He sought the endorsement of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party as a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2008, but was defeated by Al Franken. Background Nelson-Pallmeyer was born as the youngest of four ...

argue that all monotheistic religions are inherently violent. For example, Nelson-Pallmeyer writes that "Judaism,

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

and

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

will continue to contribute to the destruction of the world until and unless each challenges violence in '

sacred texts Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and ...

' and until each affirms nonviolent, including the nonviolent power of God." Bruce Feiler writes of

ancient history Ancient history is a time period from the History of writing, beginning of writing and recorded human history through late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the development of Sumerian language, ...

that "Jews and Christians who smugly console themselves that Islam is the only violent religion are willfully ignoring their past. Nowhere is the struggle between faith and violence described more vividly, and with more stomach-turning details of ruthlessness, than in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' numerous Old Testament texts the power and glory of Israel's God is described in the language of violence." They assert that more than one thousand passages refer to YHWH as acting violently or supporting the violence of humans and that more than one hundred passages involve divine commands to kill humans. Supersessionist Christian churches and theologians argue that Judaism is a violent religion and they also argue that the god of Israel is a violent god, while Christianity is a religion of peace and they also argue that the god of Christianity is one that only expresses love. While this point of view has been commonly held throughout the

history of Christianity The history of Christianity began with the life of Jesus, an itinerant Jewish preacher and teacher, who was Crucifixion of Jesus, crucified in Jerusalem . His followers proclaimed that he was the Incarnation (Christianity), incarnation of Go ...

and while it currently remains a common assumption among contemporary Christians, it has been rejected by mainstream Christian theologians and denominations since the Holocaust.R. Kendall Soulen. ''The God of Israel and Christian Theology''. Fortress Press (June 11, 1996) .

References

Sources

* Berger, Michael S., "Taming the Beast: Rabbinic Pacification of Second-Century Jewish Nationalism", in ''Belief and bloodshed: religion and violence across time and tradition'', James K. Wellman (Ed.), Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, pp. 47–62 * Boustan, Ra'anan S., "Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practice in Early Judaism and Christianity", in ''Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practice in Early Judaism and Christianity'', Ra'anan S. Boustan, Alex P. Jassen, Calvin J. Roetzel (Eds), Brill, 2010 pp. 1–12 * * Chilton, Bruce, ''Abraham's Curse: The Roots of Violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam'', Doubleday, 2009 * Chomsky, Noam, ''World orders, old and new'', Columbia University Press, 1996 * Ehrlich, Carl. S, "Joshua, Judaism, and Genocide", in ''Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century'', Judit Targarona Borrás, Ángel Sáenz-Badillos (Eds). 1999, Brill. pp. 117–124. * Ellens, J. Harold (Ed.), ''The destructive power of religion: violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007 * Esber, Rosemarie M., ''Under the Cover of War: The Zionist Expulsion of the Palestinians'', Arabicus Books & Media, LLC, 2009 * Feldman, Louis H., ''"Remember Amalek!": vengeance, zealotry, and group destruction in the Bible according to Philo, Pseudo-Philo, and Josephus'', Hebrew Union College Press, 2004 * Firestone, Reuven, "Judaism on Violence and Reconciliation: An Examination of Key Sources", in ''Beyond violence: religious sources of social transformation in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam'', James Heft (Ed.), Fordham Univ Press, 2004, pp. 74–87 * Glick, Leonard B., "Religion and Genocide", in ''The Widening circle of genocide'', Alan L. Berger (Ed). Transaction Publishers, 1994, pp. 43–74 * Gopin, Marc, ''Between Eden and Armageddon: the future of world religions, violence, and peacemaking'', Oxford University Press US, 2000. * Harkabi, Yehoshafat, ''Arab attitudes to Israel'', John Wiley and Sons, 1974 * Heft, James (Ed.), ''Beyond violence: religious sources of social transformation in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam'', Fordham Univ Press, 2004 * Hirst, David, ''The gun and the olive branch: the roots of violence in the Middle East'', Nation Books, 2003 * Hoffman, R. Joseph, ''The just war and jihad: violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam'', Prometheus Books, 2006 *Horowitz, Elliott S., ''Reckless rites: Purim and the legacy of Jewish violence'', Princeton University Press, 2006 * Jacobs, Steven Leonard, "The Last Uncomfortable Religious Question? Monotheistic Exclusivism and Textual Superiority in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as Sources of Hate and Genocide", in ''Confronting genocide: Judaism, Christianity, Islam'', Steven L. Jacobs (Ed.), Lexington Books, 2009, pp. 35–46 * Johnson, Paul, ''A History of the Jews'', Harper Perennial, 1987 * Juergensmeyer, Mark, ''Terror in the mind of God: the global rise of religious violence'', University of California Press, 2003 * Kuper, Leo, "Theological Warrants for Genocide: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity", in ''Confronting genocide: Judaism, Christianity, Islam'', Steven L. Jacobs (Ed.), Lexington Books, 2009, pp. 3–34 * Lustick, Ian, ''For the land and the Lord: Jewish fundamentalism in Israel'', Council on Foreign Relations, 1988 * Masalha, Nur, ''The Bible and Zionism: Invented Traditions, Archaeology and Post-colonialism in Palestine-Israel'', Zed Books, 2007 * Morris, Benny, ''The birth of the Palestinian refugee problem revisited'', Cambridge University Press, 2004 * Niditch, Susan, ''War in the Hebrew Bible: a study in the ethics of violence'', Oxford University Press US, 1995 * Pappe, Ilan, ''The ethnic cleansing of Palestine'', Oneworld, 2007 * Pedahzur, Ami, ''Jewish terrorism in Israel'', Columbia University Press, Columbia University Press, 2009 * Perliger, Arie and Weinberg, Leonard, "Jewish Self-Defence and Terrorist Groups Prior to the Establishment of the State of Israel: Roots and Traditions", in ''Religious fundamentalism and political extremism'', Perliger, Arie (Ed.), Taylor & Francis, 2004, pp. 91–118 * Phillips, Gary A., "More Than the Jews … His Blood Be Upon All the Children: Biblical Violence, Genocide and Responsible Reading", in ''Confronting genocide: Judaism, Christianity, Islam'', Steven L. Jacobs (Ed.), Lexington Books, 2009, pp. 77–87 * Pitkanen, Pekka, "Memory, Witnesses, and Genocide in the Book of Joshua", in ''Reading the law: studies in honour of Gordon J. Wenham'', J. Gordon McConville, Karl Möller (Eds), Continuum International Publishing Group, 2007, pp. 267–282 * Prior, Michael P., ''The Bible and colonialism: a moral critique'', Sheffield Academic Press, 1997. * Quigley, John B., ''Palestine and Israel: a challenge to justice'', Duke University Press, 1990 * Saleh Abd al-Jawad (2007) "Zionist Massacres: the Creation of the Palestinian Refugee Problem in the 1948 War" in ''Israel and the Palestinian refugees'', Eyal Benvenistî, Chaim Gans, Sari Hanafi (Eds.), Springer, 2007 * Schwab, Gerald, ''The Day the Holocaust Began'', Praeger, New York, 1990 * Selengut, Charles, ''Sacred fury: understanding religious violence'', Rowman & Littlefield, 2008 * Shahak, Israel, ''Jewish fundamentalism in Israel'', Pluto Press, 1999 * Sprinzak, Ehud, ''Brother against brother: violence and extremism in Israeli politics from Altalena to the Rabin assassination'', Simon and Schuster, 1999 * Van Wees, Hans, "Genocide in the Ancient World", in ''The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies'', Donald Bloxham, A. Dirk Moses (Eds), Oxford University Press US, 2010, pp. 239–258. * Weisburd, David, ''Jewish Settler Violence'', Penn State Press, 1985 * Whitelam, Keith W., ''The invention of ancient Israel: the silencing of Palestinian history'', Routledge, 1996 {{DEFAULTSORT:Judaism And Violence

Violence Violence is characterized as the use of physical force by humans to cause harm to other living beings, or property, such as pain, injury, disablement, death, damage and destruction. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines violence a ...